WOC Tackles Multiple Threats to Southwest Wyoming's Natural Wealth

by Tom Darin and Meredith Taylor

Southwest Wyoming is an absolutely beautiful part of the state. Between the southern tip of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) and the vast sandy plains of the Red Desert, lies the Green River Basin, with its clear streams, expansive open spaces and stunning vistas. The Green River is the headwaters of the Colorado River and the basin is prime habitat for sage grouse, trout and other wildlife. But it, like much of the rest of the state, is facing many threats to these once abundant natural resources.

Historic oil fields, conventional natural gas and coalbed methane drilling, livestock overgrazing in some places, elk feedgrounds and burgeoning human development combine to create a bottleneck in traditional wildlife migration corridors. While some of these disturbances affect resources all over the state, what is truly frightening is that they all exist in southwestern Wyoming.

Any one of these man-made threats is cause for worry. In combination, however, their potential effects on pure water, clean air, abundant wildlife, healthy fisheries and unbroken wide-open spaces are daunting.

Wildlife at Risk

Among the various threats to southwestern Wyoming is the potential for irreversible fragmentation of critical wildlife migration routes, winter ranges, elk calving areas and sage grouse leks and nesting areas.

Once a stronghold for sage grouse populations in the West, the Green River Basin has experienced severe declines in its upland bird populations.

However, southwest Wyoming remains one of the richest wildlife complexes in the continental U.S., containing an astonishing array of wintering big-game species, estimated at nearly 111,000 animals: 15,000 elk, 52,000 mule deer, 40,000 pronghorn antelope, 3,500 moose, 100 white-tailed deer and 150 Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.

Recent studies completed by the University of Wyoming's Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit document that pronghorn antelope migrate from Grand Teton National Park south through the mountains to the Green River Basin on the longest migration of any ungulate in North America save the caribou in Alaska. The Sublette mule deer herd accomplishes a similar migration feat.

Keeping this immense area protected from a variety of threats is key to the survival of southwest Wyoming's abundant wildlife and their unbroken and still largely wild habitat.

Gas Wells

Conventional (deep, or non-CBM) gas well fields are sprouting up all over southwest Wyoming. On the heels of the Jonah I and II fields, permitted for more than 450 wells, came the approval of an anticipated 900 wells in the Pinedale Anticline Project. All of these wells destroy and fragment wildlife habitat with miles upon miles of roads and pipelines and accompanying well pads and compressor stations, which add significant amounts of air and noise pollution.

After the approval of 900 gas wells for the Pinedale Anticline Project, one operator, Yates Petroleum, sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), alleging that wildlife-protection measures violated its original lease terms. WOC and others quickly intervened in the litigation to support the BLM, figuring that if oil and gas development is inevitable on some level, we should support the agency when it takes action to mitigate impacts to wildlife and other natural values. Yates and WOC recently filed papers in federal court and oral argument will be heard on the case in July.

The latest conventional gas drilling proposal is for more than 50 additional wells in the Vermillion Basin, where 150 wells have already been drilled and approximately 80 are currently operating. This area of vast open space is virtually roadless and contains the stunning Kinney Rim. WOC has joined Biodiversity Associates in its appeal of the additional wells to the state director of the Wyoming BLM and to the Department of Interior Board of Land Appeals.

Coalbed Methane

The problems plaguing the Powder River Basin (PRB) as a result of booming coalbed methane development are spreading to other regions of the state. (See related story on page 8.) The PRB is slotted for 51,000 wells by 2010 and, according to industry estimates, as many as 100,000 wells in the next 50 years, to recover 39 trillion cubic feet of coalbed methane (CBM) reserves. One has to wonder what the salivating natural gas industry has in mind for the whopping 314 trillion cubic feet of CBM reserves that the Gas Research Institute estimates are contained in the Green River Basin.

Located in the heart of southwest Wyoming, the Green River Basin will soon be the focus of a CBM boom that will make the PRB look like a pilot project. On that note, the Pinedale office of the BLM just gave the go-ahead for the Riley Ridge CBM pilot project, located 20 miles west of Big Piney. Five wells will test the methane reserve potential in an area near the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

WOC participated in the scoping phase of this project and provided comments on its environmental assessment. Surface impacts will be minimized by re-injecting CBM discharge water, and the Pinedale BLM office has publicly stated that if these wells prove successful, a full-blown environmental impact statement will be completed before any additional wells are authorized.

Livestock Grazing

Historically, sheep and cattle have often grazed on public lands at the expense of wildlife, native vegetation, functioning watersheds and stable soils. WOC has actively worked to improve management of two BLM grazing allotments in the Pinedale Resource Area: Upper Bench Corral and Red Canyon.

When these two allotments came up for permit renewals in 2000, WOC asked the BLM not to renew them without first dealing with livestock overgrazing of native grasses, problems with elk feedgrounds (see below) and loss of wildlife habitat. The BLM considered our comments and tried to start a collaborative process to resolve conflicts and complete a Coordinated Activities Plan (CAP) for the allotments, but the grazing permittees refused to attend even the first meeting.

Seeing no chance for cooperation without the primary parties involved, the BLM ended the process. The agency's final decision renewed the permits with only minor adjustments to the grazing plan, and WOC remains committed to reforming livestock management on both allotments.

In another recent action, WOC obtained more than 1,000 pages of documents from the Bridger-Teton National Forest regarding potential sheep-grazing abuses within the Pinedale Ranger District. WOC will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the Forest Service properly manages the areas under its care.

Feed or Disease Grounds?

Western Wyoming has the unenviable distinction of having the largest wildlife feedground complex in the world, with 22 state feedgrounds and the National Elk Refuge. By concentrating animals, feedgrounds damage native vegetation and encourage the spread of disease. Domestic animal diseases, including chronic wasting disease (CWD), tuberculosis (TB) and Pasteurella pneumonia, are serious threats to Wyoming's wildlife and should be avoided by allowing the animals of Greater Yellowstone to range freely.

Recent studies show that wildlife continue to use historic habitats where they're provided. If livestock grazing allotments on public lands were managed according to rangeland-health legal standards, which mandate leaving adequate forage for free-ranging wildlife, a balance of use would allow traditional native wildlife migrations to continue along existing natural corridors.

WOC is involved in the National Elk Refuge/Grand Teton National Park Elk and Bison Management Plan, pressing for the goal of healthy free-ranging wildlife. We are advocating a plan that will provide native habitat and natural corridors for elk and bison, reducing wildlife dependence on artificial feeding operations that confine animals in close quarters for half the year, encourage the spread of disease and lower calf production.

Wildlife Migration

Private development in northern Sublette County threatens to seriously deplete wildlife habitat and block key winter migration routes. Wildlife in this area still negotiate their ancient migration corridors despite rapidly increasing encroachment by fences, subdivisions, livestock grazing allotments, ranches, feedgrounds, roads, oil and gas rigs and pipelines. Bottlenecks like those at Trapper's Point and Fremont Lake severely restrict the area in which antelope and mule deer are able to travel between their summer and winter ranges.

Fortunately, thanks to research provided by the University of Wyoming's Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, we are now able to identify these bottlenecks and prevent them from completely blocking natural wildlife corridors.

Meeting the Challenge

The nearly 16 million acres of mountains, desert and sagebrush grasslands in southwest Wyoming have the potential to fully support an overwhelming array of wildlife species. Of course, this potential is very much threatened by any one of the human disturbances described above, let alone all five at once.

On every continent, human exploitation of natural resources has all but eradicated the cornucopia of native species that was once present. In southwest Wyoming, with ranches being subdivided and thousands of gas wells being permitted annually with little to no consideration given to key wildlife habitats, are we destined to repeat history, or is there a chance to save some of these last truly wild places in the West?

We as a nation can make intelligent decisions that will benefit our own interests as well as safeguard the natural wealth that sustains us. As the richest country in the world, we can well afford to protect the astonishing biodiversity contained in special places like southwest Wyoming. As Americans, we should be proud to be home to the largest wildlife complex in the lower 48 states and do whatever we can to sustain it in perpetuity.